by John (“Jamberg”) Amberg
It was either late August or early September, 1978. My roommate and I found ourselves hanging out at Thompson Lake on a steaming hot Saturday, first semester, freshman year. The event may have been sponsored by WIDB, or maybe it was one of those goofy “freshman mixer” deals. Either way, we put on our swimsuits and schlepped our way down to Thompson Lake, maybe to meet a few girls but mainly to escape the oppressive Carbondale heat and humidity.
There were a few guys huddled around a sound system blaring out rock ‘n roll, wearing t-shirts with radio station call letters emblazoned on them. Eventually, one sharp featured guy with dark hair grabbed a microphone and announced that he was the general manager of WIDB, the student run station located at Wright I across campus. He went on to say that WIDB was looking for students to staff their news and sports staff. “So if you’re interested in news or sports broadcasting or writing,” this guy proclaimed over the PA system, “we’re having a meeting next Tuesday evening at 7:00 PM.”
The WIDB remote crew
I had never done any radio announcing and immediately dismissed the notion of me being on the air as downright silly. But the dude did mention sports writing….Wasn’t I going to major in journalism? Wasn’t I the sports editor of my high school newspaper? What’s the worst that could happen?
The following Tuesday, I trekked across campus (a journey that I would come to know very well) and took a seat while a tall lanky guy welcomed all of us to “the new and hopefully improved WIDB News staff.”
News staff? I don’t want to write news, I’m going to be a radio sportswriter! I raised my hand and asked, “I’m sorry, but I thought this was for sports.” The news director (John Snell) patiently explained that the sports staff was meeting in an adjacent office. I excused myself and interrupted the sports director (Scott Simon) in the midst of welcoming everyone to the new WIDB Sports Staff.
John Martin, WIDB GM (right) and the rest of the 1978 staff heads.
Eventually I met the guy from the Thompson Lake event, general manager John Martin who would later reward my volunteerism with a free ticket to the Bruce Springsteen concert in December. By then I been writing sports for several months, filled in on afternoon sportscasts and even (quite ineptly) provided color commentary for an SIU football game.
John models WIDB 10th Anniversary shirt
Thus did WIDB become my home for the next three and a half years. My duties included sports director, DJ and program director.
How many of us had one of these with our name on it?
Following graduation I landed a job doing the deepest darkest graveyardshift ever, 2am-6am, at WWCT Peoria, where I rose in the ranks to music director and mid-day DJ. I moved to Greensboro, NC and held the same title at WKRR-Rock 92 for eleven years, and eventually spent another eight and a half years in sales for Entercom Radio.
I left radio in 2005 but I host a show called The Blues Hangover once month on WNAA, 90.1 FM, the radio voice of North Carolina A&T State University.
John Amberg
